News Briefs

U.S. bishops plan to launch a postcard campaign in 2010 to urge Congress to make comprehensive immigration reform its next legislative priority. •Advent services at St. Cecilia Parish in Detroit, Mich., will include “Thug Sundays,” a gun buy-back and outreach program targeting Detroit’s gang members. • President Barack Obama has established a new Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues and named Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, and James W. Wagner, president of Emory University in Atlanta, to be its top officials. • Suggestions for daily prayer, reading, reflection and action throughout the Advent and Christmas seasons can be found at www.usccb.org/advent. • After resisting their release all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Diocese of Bridgeport on Dec. 1 delivered thousands of pages of court documents related to sexual abuse by clergy to the attorneys for the four newspapers that had sued to obtain the material. • The Israeli Supreme Court is reviewing the case of 21-year-old Berlanty Azzam, a Bethlehem University student deported from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, and a decision is expected in mid-December.